The power vacuum America left in Afghanistan is fueling a resurgence of Islamist terrorists with the will, and perhaps capability, to target the U.S., according to a new United States Institute of Peace (USIP) report that argues the Biden administration should consider unleashing more military strikes against terrorist targets in the country, along with cyberattacks to disrupt the communications and propaganda campaigns of ISIS-K and al Qaeda.

Since pulling the last troops out of Afghanistan in August 2021, the U.S. military has carried out just one strike in the country despite Mr. Biden’s promise that the “over the horizon” capabilities of the military and intelligence community could keep a lid on any terrorist threats. The USIP report argues the administration needs to overhaul its approach to meet the rising level of danger.

Terrorist threats are also growing in neighboring Pakistan, with some groups aiming to attack the U.S. homeland and others focused on attacks on India, the report warns, assessing that in a worst-case scenario, that “could trigger Indian military action against Pakistan and, in turn, risk a regional war between two nuclear-armed states.”

It’s notable that U.S. and Pakistani officials held a “counterterrorism dialogue” in recent days. The State Department said both sides “resolved to increase communication” toward a partnership to counter ISIS-K, the Islamic State’s active and deadly Afghan-based branch.

China is engaged in information warfare across multiple sectors of Taiwan and plans a takeover of the self-ruled island through political coercion and cyber spying influence operations, with military force a key option, according to two new think tank reports.

China’s military is playing a central role behind aggressive activities that seek what President Xi Jinping has called the “complete reunification” of Taiwan, states a report by analysts from the intelligence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. The report warns that “the total isolation or annexation of Taiwan would constitute a significant erosion of U.S. influence and trust in its ability to balance power in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere.”

Separately, a report by the American Enterprise Institute warns that China is capable of taking Taiwan without a war, using a range of strategic coercive activities.

Canada is making significant military investments, including purchasing combat and support aircraft, and will replace its aging submarine fleet, according to Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair, who says the moves are needed to address growing threats to the Arctic region, most notably from Russia.

“We need to really up our game,” Mr. Blair told journalists gathered for a Defense Writers Group meeting in Washington on Monday, comments that come against a backdrop in which multinational attempts to manage geopolitical competition in the frozen north have suffered amid Russia’s break with the West because of the war in Ukraine.

The Arctic Ocean could be the primary transit route between Europe and Asia by 2050. The Russians already have deep-water ports in the Arctic. Pentagon Correspondent Mike Glenn reports that Mr. Blair didn’t say how many outposts Canada has other than to say it “wasn’t enough.”

The Pentagon’s Replicator program and the wider issue of how artificial intelligence and autonomous drone systems are reshaping U.S. military weaponry take center stage in the latest Threat Status weekly podcast.

Replicator aims to dramatically expand the number of all-domain autonomous systems available to the U.S. and its allies over the coming year. National Security Correspondent Ben Wolfgang reported from the Special Operations Forces Week convention in Tampa for the podcast, which features an interview with Wahid Nawabi, CEO of AeroVironment, one of many companies involved in Replicator. He says the program is moving “incredibly fast” and that AeroVironment’s systems are being used in 55 different countries around the world, including Ukraine.

The podcast also delves into a range of other issues, including the latest developments in the mystery of suspended State Department Iran envoy Robert Malley and the cease-fire that wasn’t between Israel and Hamas.

Mr. Biden has overseen the fastest expansion of immigration — legal and illegal — in U.S. history, but fewer than half of the newcomers are holding jobs, according to a new report by the Center for Immigration Studies.

The assessment, based on U.S. Census Bureau numbers, calculates that 46% of immigrants who arrived over the past two years are employed, a reality that challenges a key selling point from immigration advocates that the stream of newcomers is critical to the U.S. economy.

There is a world where everything distressing to Beijing suddenly disappears — no Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang, no Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, no Russian invasion of Ukraine, no protests in Hong Kong and no COVID-19 pandemic, write Ted Bossong and Zacarias Negron, college students and presidents of the Alexander Hamilton Society chapters at their universities, Wake Forest for Mr. Bossong and Vanderbilt for Mr. Negron.

This world, crafted entirely by the Chinese Communist Party, is only a click away, they write, adding that “we know because a majority of our generation (and around 55% of the U.S. population) lives in it on TikTok.”

“China minces few words in its aim to meet and defeat the United States. TikTok, the Chinese Communist Party’s most able information weapon, has placed millions of American Gen Zers on the front lines of a ‘cold-turning-hot war,’ which promises a half-century more akin to the dystopian world of TikTok’s worst narratives than anything we have ever known,” write Mr. Bossong and Mr. Negron.

“Last month, a flourish of President Biden’s signature put the app in serious jeopardy,” they write. “Indeed, legislation to ban the platform (or a transfer of ownership to an entity that is not aligned with the Chinese Communist Party) has been a bicameral success.”

• May 14 — Mexico After AMLO, Hudson Institute.

• May 15 — Countering Campus Antisemitism: A Bipartisan Conversation with Reps. Mike Lawler (New York Republican, and Ritchie Torres, New York Democrat, American Enterprise Institute.

• May 15 — U.S.-Nigeria Partnership in the Changing Global Arena: A Conversation with Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar, Wilson Center.

• May 15 — The Pernicious Impact of China’s Anti-Secession Law, Hudson Institute.

• May 15 — Panel Discussion and Reception on Nuclear Security Modernization, Advanced Nuclear Weapons Alliance Deterrence Center: ANWA.

• May 16 — Preserving and Strengthening Democracy in Latin America, Wilson Center.

• May 21 — A Conversation with Former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi: Reflections on Diplomacy and Peace, U.S. Institute of Peace.